Ronald M. Baglio Sports & Fitness Center, Eagle Hill School

Hardwick, MA
Construction Cost: $11.8 million
Area / Square Feet: 62,000
Occupancy Date: July 2013

The latest in a line of 10 new buildings constructed on the Eagle Hill School campus over the past dozen years, the Ronald M. Baglio Sports & Fitness Center replaces an outdated gym and fitness center. It includes a natatorium, a state-of-the-art fitness center, a walking/jogging track, a multipurpose room, squash courts and a climbing wall in a tower just off the three-court competition/recreational gymnasium.

The Sports & Fitness Center occupies a prominent place at the top of a hill overlooking the campus, and the hill is used to partially hide the mass of the large-volume gym and natatorium. Ample available land allowed the design team to create a single-story building that would save greatly in construction costs and make student supervision easier. Designers updated the campus context by adding heavily tinted ribbon windows just below prominent eyebrow overhangs.

This more modern look is repeated in the building spine and in the top of the climbing wall tower, making all areas of the building light and airy while adding a sleek design element to the school’s New England style. This design also adds dynamism to the large punched openings in the clapboard exterior, while the generous windows below (repeated within the lobby streetscape) help unify the aesthetic and keep the natatorium, gymnasium and fitness areas in full view of arriving community members.